


He's in Love With the Boy

by Kody (saturated)



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Fix-It, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 12:21:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21099380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saturated/pseuds/Kody
Summary: “I thought we told each other everything,” Eddie said.”“There’s nothing to tell,” Richie said.“That’s bullshit and you know it.Richie and Eddie have a conversation about their future in 1994 and remember it again when they return to Derry in 2016.





	He's in Love With the Boy

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm supposed to be writing part 2 to another fic (I'm halfway done shut up) but I was listening to sappy 90s country music yesterday and got carried away. Yes, the title is (almost) a song title. "She's in love with the boy" by Trisha Yearwood, go look it up, it's adorable.
> 
> Anyway, inspiration aside, have this cute one shot that I cried over when I thought of it (imagine me driving home in rush hour with music blasting and singing this song when all of the sudden I start tearing up because I'm reddie af)

1994

Richie had parked in the back row at the drive-in out of instinct. After years of dating, he and Eddie had developed ways to hide, like now with pillows and blankets lining the back of Richie’s truck, the two of laying shoulder to shoulder, hands linked on Eddie’s lap away from prying eyes. Although, the dark drive-in was usually safe.

Richie couldn’t focus on the movie, even if _Beverly Hills Cop III_ was his long-awaited sequel to the great movie sequel, _Beverly Hills Cop II, _of Richie’s favorite comedies, _Beverly Hills Cop_. He had been raving for weeks.

But no, Richie couldn’t focus because Eddie didn’t know that he saw that UCLA rejection letter sitting on the kitchen table at Eddie’s house. Eddie had applied to backup schools to make sure he could get out of Derry, but the two of them had everything staked on Eddie getting into UCLA to make sure that he could follow Richie out there. They’d be separated, and that wasn’t something Richie could stand to think about.

Eddie laughed at something, and when Richie didn’t, Eddie immediately turned to look at him and nudge him with his shoulder.

“You okay?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah,” Richie lied. “Just tired.”

“It’s only 10:30 and I’ve never known you to go to bed before midnight.”

“I mean mentally. You know, these final projects are starting and it’s really getting to me.”

Eddie studied his face for a moment before saying, “Okay,” and then sat up. “I need to stretch my legs for a minute.”

Eddie hopped out of the truck and headed off down the row without Richie protesting. Richie sat up, too, and rubbed his face in his hands. _Stupid. Just fucking tell him you know._

But it wouldn’t be that easy, would it? The two of them had been planning their future for the last few months. Richie wanted to move to L.A. to try his stint in comedy (and also to get the fuck out of Derry) and Eddie fully supported him. As much as Eddie rolled his eyed and shoved Richie over bad jokes, Richie knew that Eddie thought he was funny. Everyone else thought he was pretty funny too, and he had to break one or two hearts of girls who had hopeless crushes on the “funny guy” in their class.

But L.A. didn’t mean anything if Eddie wasn’t going to be there. He had applied kind of late to UCLA, hoping that his grades were good enough to get him in, hoping that he could follow Richie wherever. Richie never imagined that Eddie would want to do that for him, but he had to figure if he was as lovestruck as he was, who’s to say Eddie wasn’t the same? But Eddie was so _amazing_. If he didn’t follow Richie, wherever he went he was bound to encounter all kinds of people that would be as lovestruck as Richie was. How could Richie compete with that?

After a couple minutes, Eddie came back to Richie sitting, hugging his knees close like the moody teenager he was. Eddie climbed back in and settled in a few inches away from Richie.

“I thought we told each other everything,” Eddie said.

“There’s nothing to tell,” Richie said.

“That’s bullshit and you know it.”

Richie turned and looked at Eddie. “Yeah, what do you know?” Richie had said that with more bite than he intended.

“I know you saw my fucking letter from UCLA.” Eddie stated this as absolute fact. His eyebrows were furrowed the way they were when he was mad, but behind his eyes shone tears.

“Oh,” was all Richie could say.

Eddie sat forward. “Yeah. Oh.” He turned his head away and rubbed his face in a way that Richie knew as him trying to hide that he was crying.

“I don’t have to go,” Richie said quickly. “It’s not like I’m going to school or anything. I’ll follow you wherever you go to school. We’ll be fine.”

“You can’t!” Eddie said. “You can’t do that.”

“Yeah, I can,” Richie said, not understanding why Eddie thought he could tell him what to do. “I can go wherever I want. If not fucking this up means I go where you go, then that’s what I’m doing.”

“You’re not giving up for me, Richie,” Eddie said not bothering to hide his crying now. Richie felt himself wanting to cry too.

“I’m not,” Richie said softly. “I’m not giving up. I’m postponing. For _us_.”

But Eddie shook his head. “You can’t,” he said barely higher than a whisper. “I won’t let you skip out on moving to L.A. just because I’m going fucking U of M or whatever.” Eddie wiped his eyes. “We can make it work.”

Richie had been toying with the idea of “making it work”. He had been toying with all kinds of ideas, some more than others, but “making it work” was not the one he wanted. His ideas went in the order of: one, begging UCLA to let Eddie in; two, following Eddie to wherever he went; three, convincing Eddie to not go to college and to move to L.A. with Richie with no plan (which was the most implausible); and finally, making it work. Richie didn’t want to “make it work” because that was the one option (aside from breaking up but Richie didn’t consider that for more than two seconds) that meant he and Eddie wouldn’t be together. But it had to happen because none of the other options would work.

Richie couldn’t deal with this, but neither could Eddie, and Richie hated seeing Eddie upset. There was another thing he was considering if it came down to “making it work”. He was terrified that Eddie would find someone else and forget about him, and maybe it was selfish, but it would give him some reassurance, and maybe it would make Eddie feel better too. Richie thanked everything that somehow his dad convinced him to get a class ring.

“We can,” Richie said. “We will make it work. Even if it sucks.”

Eddie nodded.

“But I love you. I fucking love you more than anything and I’m fucking terrified of what comes after graduation and leaving Derry and leaving…leaving you.” Richie took a deep breath. “I love you, and I want…I need to know that we’ll make this work.” Richie took his ring off. “I know this won’t mean much yet, and it won’t mean what it means for like, regular couples, but we can say it means commitment, I guess.”

Eddie’s eyes widened. “Richie…”

“We can’t do it yet,” Richie said before Eddie could start talking. “But the day we can…” Richie held out his ring. “Will you marry me?”

“Richie,” Eddie said. “I…you can’t…_we _can’t…”

“Not yet,” Richie said. “But I have big dreams. I’m moving to L.A. for fuck’s sake. They’re a lot better there than they are here. One day we will.”

“Okay,” Eddie said. “Yes.” Eddie gingerly took the ring, put it on and smiled. “I love you.”

Richie took the opportunity to pounce on Eddie and pepper his face with kisses. “Don’t scare me like that, Eds!”

“Rich!” Eddie said laughing and pushing Richie off. “People will see.”

“Who fucking cares!” Richie all but shouted. “We’re in love, baby!”

“Will you shut the fuck up?” Eddie said, still smiling at his boyfriend. His smile faded. “This doesn’t mean I’m still not terrified.”

“What do you mean?” Richie said scooting close to Eddie.

“Four years is a long time, Richie,” Eddie said leaning into Richie’s shoulder. “What if we grow apart? Forget about each other?”

Richie wrapped his arm around Eddie. “Now how could I forget about you, Eddie-bear?”

Eddie shoved Richie. “Fuck you.”

2016

Eddie hand closed around the class ring in his pocket. It clacked against his wedding ring that he still hadn’t taken off even though he had already decided he didn’t love his wife anymore. They had killed that fucking clown and were free. Eddie had been brave, and he had done it. Why couldn’t he be brave about this?

He came back to Derry and the memories came back. The memories of riding bikes and swimming in the quarry and playing at the arcade. The memories of Bill and Stan and Ben and Mike and Bev. And of Richie. He saw Richie and everything he felt came back. The next morning, he remembered enough to remember why he hadn’t bothered to get rid of the class ring he carried in his pocket for the last 25 years. But by that point they had a mission. There was no time for talking. No time to talk about how Eddie made a promise to Richie and they both forgot about it and now Eddie was married.

But now it was over. After a quick swim in the quarry to clean up (and Eddie had complained the entire time), they went back to the townhouse to shower and rest. Eddie couldn’t rest. He cleaned up and sat at the edge of his bed, running his fingers over the class ring he had now taken out of his pocket.

There was knock at his door. Without thinking, he told them to come in.

It was Richie.

“Hey, Eds,” he said. “I was wondering if we could talk…” He trailed off when he saw Eddie holding a ring. “What’s that?”

Eddie’s hand instinctively closed around it, attempting to hide it without thinking. “Um…a ring.” He slowly opened his hand and held it out for Richie. Eddie supposed now was as good of a time as any to talk about this.

Richie took it and sat next to Eddie on the bed. “This is my class ring.”

“Yup.”

“You had it,” Richie said softly. Eddie had to assume Richie was either thinking or remembering what went with it, discovering it was the latter. “That night…I proposed to you.”

“Yeah.”

“And you remembered already?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t bring it up?”

“What was I supposed to say, Rich?” Eddie said slightly exasperated. “Remember when we promised we were gonna get married but then forgot and, oh, wait, I’m also married.”

Richie turned the ring over in his fingers. “You kept it.”

“I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.”

“Why?”

“Felt wrong.”

“Wrong.”

“Like getting rid of a part of myself.”

“You didn’t remember, though?”

“No…Some part of me might have.”

“So now what?”

Eddie sighed and pulled off his wedding ring. “I think I’m leaving my wife.”

Richie chuckled to himself. “For little ol’ me?”

“You wish, Tozier,” Eddie said elbowing Richie. “No,” he said sobering. “For me.”

Richie looked at Eddie slightly disappointed. Eddie remembered that look well. That was the look for when Eddie had to kick Richie out of his room. That was the look for when Eddie was adamant about partnering with someone else for a project to make sure he actually got work done. That was the look for when Richie was being selfish, but he knew he shouldn’t be. Eddie wanted to kiss that look off his face like he always did.

So he did.

And Richie kissed him back until Eddie pulled away.

“What are we doing?” Eddie said expecting Richie to explain why Eddie did that.

“You kissed me, Eds,” Richie said. “Isn’t that what we were doing?”

“Yeah, but,” Eddie said slowly, “do you still…love me?”

“Do you love me?”

“I asked first.”

Richie smiled at that and Eddie couldn’t figure out why.

“What’s so funny?” Eddie said bitterly. “I’m terrified you don’t still love me and you…”  
“Of course, I do, Eddie,” Richie said putting a hand on Eddie’s unwounded cheek. “I never stopped, even if I forgot.”

“I love you, too, Rich,” Eddie leaning in to keep kissing Richie. 

It felt like they had never left each other. One of Eddie’s hands crept onto Richie’s thigh and the other to his side as he deepened the kiss. Richie’s hand slowly moved from Eddie’s cheek to curl his fingers in his hair to hold him closer.

After a minute, Richie pulled back and held the ring out to Eddie. “You better take this back. I think we’re still technically engaged.”

“How romantic,” Eddie said taking it and replacing it on his finger where his wedding ring was.

“Also, I told you so,” Richie said.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“One day we would be able to, and we can now,” Richie said smiling. “All these fuckers in Derry can say what they want and we don’t have to give a shit because we don’t have to wait any longer.”

Eddie smiled back and jumped on Richie, pushing him down on the bed, kissing him like the world depended on it.


End file.
